This course will be delivered as part of the Supporting Capacity Development of Tax Administrations in South East Europe project primarily supported by the Dutch Ministry of Finance, Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Assistance Technique France (Adetef). The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening of beneficiary institutions’ capacity in implementing the EU’s recommendations under which the revenue authorities can deliver tax compliance risk management.

What you will learn

Government departments and agencies, like any business, increasingly seek long-term success based on strategic planning. This can be challenging but without it an organization will not achieve its goals. Managing people, planning, communicating, delegating, motivating, managing performance, problem solving, and understanding team dynamics are some of the key skills managers in tax administrations will need to successfully lead reform processes in a climate of ongoing change, economic challenges and uncertainty.

In this interactive course participants will learn about and explore various ways of coping with organizational changes. It will offer an opportunity to discuss different change strategies and problem solving practices.

The course will address in greater detail the following topics:

Distinguishing the characteristics of change inducements
Using a theoretical framework for strategic and operational change
Designing new organizational structures
Developing a reorganization plan
Handling of the implementation process
Finding appropriate levels of employee participation
Considering questions of evaluation and revision
Coping with consequences for clients and employees

How you will benefit

The course will promote the experience-sharing and the sharing of best practice among participants. In this context, a significant part of the course will be devoted to discussions that will draw on existing experience of the participating countries to examine the challenges involved in and possible approaches to successfully introduce changes as an integral part of the ongoing efforts to reform the tax administration.

By the end of the course, participants will have:

Received insights into what factors need to be considered in order to effectively manage changes when reforming tax administrations
Learned about the importance of leadership and good change management in reform processes
Discussed possible ways of educating the staff with the aim to raise confidence and trust before as well as during the implementation period of the change management activities
Discussed how to build an effective engagement and communication plan in support of change
Discussed different strategies to analyze and manage “resistance to change”

Who should attend

Participants should ideally have a good working knowledge understanding of how to go about implementing the necessary changes in their own situations. They should also be in a position to express opinions and share experiences of reorganization processes within their institutions in discussion with other fellow participants.

Faculty

Steffen Hansen, Tax Administration Reform Advisor for South East Europe, International Monetary Fund
Steffen is a Danish career administrator with a wealth of experience across all tax administration and customs components of revenue administration. Following more than twenty years of employment in various staff and middle management positions, he has since 1994 held top management positions at both regional and central level, including at the Danish Ministry of Taxation as Deputy Permanent Secretary.

Steffen has led a number of large-scale and complex development and reorganization projects, including merger of customs and tax agencies, streamlining of organization structures, and full implementation of a modern Compliance Risk Management system. He possesses a wealth of experience in cooperating with the European Commission, as well as familiarity with EU rules and regulations in customs and taxation, and with the EU customs and fiscal blueprints.

Norman Gillanders, CEF Associate Fellow
Norman was head of strategic planning and operations policy in the Irish Revenue service at the level of assistant commissioner. He led the restructuring of the Irish Revenue by designing, setting up and running the first of its new regions and was one of the key managers in the overall restructuring of the organization. He implemented a new business model for managing PAYE (employee payroll taxation) and led the development of the Irish Revenue's compliance strategy. As part of this strategy, Irish Revenue launched its REAP system for computer-driven risk screening of businesses to improve targeting of compliance interventions.

Norman worked as the IMF's tax administration reform advisor in South Eastern Europe from 2011 to 2014. He worked on behalf of the IMF with the tax authorities in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro and Romania and was attached to the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Norman also worked for the IMF on short-term missions, mainly in Rwanda but also in Jordan, Armenia and Tunisia where he was part of a team that delivered a week's training in strategic planning to delegates from over 20 English-speaking African countries.

Strengthening Management Skills in Tax Administration Reform Processes

What you will learn

How you will benefit

Who should attend

Faculty

Application procedure